With the mountains, hills and plains that surround it, Lake Como offers tasty genuine products. Missoltini (sun-dried shad) Larian-style tench, pike fillets, risotto with perch, maltagliati with lavaret roe and famous traditional Lombard dishes such as casseoula (pork and savoy cabbage) and buseca (tripe) all accompanied by the ubiquitous polenta uncia and tocc, and washed down with some good local red or white wine, are just some of the dishes that you will see on restaurant menus in the Lake Como area.

In the valleys and mountains you can sample peasant cooking, essentially based on yellow taragna vuncia polenta, which accompanies tasty game dishes or rustic cheese. Polenta, game, mushrooms and chestnuts are the main foods in this cuisine with its old traditional tastes. Full fat cheese is a typical product of mountain dairies. It is still made today in copper pans on wood burning stoves and the cheese is left to mature for at least three months in natural grottos or cellars. The Valsassina excels in cheese-making, thanks to its herds and the grottos that are used in natural maturation. The most famous product is taleggio but there are also stronger or more delicate goats` cheeses, small fresh cheeses, ricotta, rustic salami and excellent butter.

To the principal fish, which feature in the most famous dishes offered by restaurants on Lake Como (whitefish, twaite shad ,perch, trout) are added less well-known fish (carp, `cavedano,` eel, pike, bleek), and then complimented by regional methods of preparation.

Lake Como not only has fish but also a top quality vegetable culture; the olive tree cultivation which produces today a precious DOP (of protected origin) oil has remained through the years and has even been strengthened up.

The dairy products, from pastureland butter to cheeses with the strangest of names: caprini, casorette, zincarlin, semude, piazzavachera, caprinotti, perfect either on their own or to finish off a meal. Fat cheese is a typical product of the mountain dairies. It is produced from full-fat cow`s milk and as it is not skimmed, it maintains all its organoleptic properties. Even nowadays cooking is done in copper cauldrons over wood fires and the cheese is left to season in natural caves or cellars for at least three months. Valsassina excels in the production of dairy goods thanks to its pastures and caves, which retain constant temperatures and humidity all year round and are perfect for the natural seasoning of cheeses. There the most well-known product is `Taleggio` cheese, but we should not forget `caprini,` both delicate and spicy, `formaggelle,` `ricotta,` rustic salamis and excellent butter.

The area is also famous for the production of different types of honey, for example chestnut honey with a strong, sharp taste or the much lighter, acacia honey and we must not forget the tastey mushrooms and chestnuts.

The most admired wine comes from the hills of Montevecchia, which is becoming more known and recovering discreetly in the quality and quantity of its wine production.

Recently, a small wine production is gaining ground in the hills around Domaso in North Lake Como.